Holiday Gossiping Blues
by aphtrashbin
Summary: It's Christmas time at university, and the GSA is having some problems with the Secret Santa exchange. Well, more accurately, Alfred's having some problems with his Secret Santa Recipient and gossip around the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. Fucking Arthur Kirkland is getting a broken clock for Christmas. USUK, Secret Santa gift for dontscrewwithfandoms on tumblr!


A/N: MAN, my recipient, aka dontscrewwithfandoms, gave me literally one word prompts. It'd be no big deal if I was one for drawing, but as most of ya'll know, my preference for fanwork is in fan fic…. And lord knows I was awfully specific in my prompts!

Either way, this is my 2015 USUK Secret Santa gift, I'm combining prompts to actually get something out of it. (Gift Exchange + Mistletoe)

It's naturally a College AU

XXXXX

Never let it be said that Alfred F Jones was above being petty. The 19-year-old college sophomore was far from it. Oh no. Arthur Kirkland, aka, The Cruelly Handsome Bane of His Gay Existence, had been talking shit about him behind his back. The British Grad Student had carved out a name for himself when he had overheard the bastard talking about him with Francis, another Foreign Exchange student.

They all knew each other from their University's Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. And Arthur had been talking shit about him behind Alfred's back.

See if _Alfred_ gave him that nice Secret Santa gift he'd bought the other day. He would _gladly_ drink all that disgusting tea himself, if he needed to. And it would taste great, if only because he knew Arthur would never get his backstabbing hands on it.

Now, allow him to make the record clear for all parties involved. The Resource Center, as nice as it was to be able to find the entire Queer population on campus in, was _notoriously_ catty- horrifyingly so, in fact. It wasn't the first time Alfred, the bisexual college student, had been a target for bitchy conversation either. He remembered last year, when a senior had a bone to pick with the overzealous freshmen and had gossiped behind his back and publicly humiliated him.

Bitch was getting a fucking broken _clock_ for Christmas.

Finals week was all of a week away, and so the GSA of their college was putting on a Secret Santa. Alfred had been assigned Arthur, and originally, he had been awfully excited for it. Arthur had shown up this year, asking about free printing and student groups, and was mind-bogglingly _adorable_ to the volunteer. Said volunteer being, of course, Alfred, the lil' ol astrophysics major in the ROTC program.

Arthur, however, seemed to never want _anything_ to do with him. He ended up being quiet and doing work most of the time he was at the resource center. Hell, the only thing Kirkland ever said about his clothes was a disparaging comment about "How on Earth could Alfred have burnt a hole through his uniform pants with an iron." In fact, Alfred thought it was far easier than _Arthur_ would think it. Bastard didn't even tell Alfred what he did wrong.

Hence why he was the _Bane_ of Alfred's Gay Existence.

XXXXX

The time for the GSA Exchange had come, and Alfred bitterly held his gifts in his backpack, planning on giving the tea later to a _better_ friend. Not that Arthur was really a friend of his. Francis was setting up the mistletoe, and waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Alfred when Arthur walked into the room.

Alfred rolled his eyes, not one to like being fucked with. Francis gave him a questioning look, but ultimately shrugged it off.

The trickle of people kept coming, and it came strong around 8 o clock- their scheduled meeting time.

Alfred mindlessly answered the questions- name, pronoun, and their favorite part of Christmastime. "Alfred, he/him/his, and I love the decorations most." And then he went back to brooding. He actually didn't want to be here, but he would get into trouble if he didn't come to it, since this was a three-week scheduled in way advance gift exchange.

So he stuck with it, despite his growing irritation with the meaningful looks Arthur kept giving him and Francis.

Elizabeta, the pan leader of GSA, gave Alfred a strange look, before calling a call for presents. Alfred mindlessly put his broken clock for Arthur in the bag secretively, huffing a bit as the bag went around.

Once all the presents were all in the bag, Elizabeta handed them out, giving Alfred his gift- the cursive giving it away as from Francis. He opened it almost immediately, not expecting anything great…

Only to find, to his upmost and gleeful surprise, that it was the figurine set he had rattled on and on about at the volunteer table, the new Star Wars figures that he was too broke to buy. He smiled stupidly, almost tempted to already open the box and see the new characters in their beautiful forms.

The one rant about how he was _Broke_ ™ that Arthur had been strangely quiet during.

When Alfred snuck a glance, Arthur was looking over at him, clearly trying to see a reaction from him, a small, unsure smile on his lips.

Shit mother fucking _shit_.

Arthur had been telling Francis what Alfred wanted.

Alfred put the gift in his bag, before faking surprise. "Oh my gosh! Liz, I gave you the wrong gift!" He exclaimed, faking panic. "I gave you my shit gag gift for my brother!"

"Oh!" Elizabeta said, stopping Arthur from opening up the broken clock by snatching the gift, and exchanging it with the gift Alfred was currently holding- the tea he had originally purchased for Arthur.

"Whoops, there's nothing secret about it now." She admitted innocently as she handed Arthur the true gift.

"Merry Christmas, Arthur." Alfred said from his seat, sheepish from the whole bitter attitude he had brought into the holiday party. He gripped the box of Star Wars figurines quietly after that, watching for the reaction. Arthur seemed delighted with the tea set, and Alfred felt gleefully vindicated.

When Elizabeta and Francis pushed the pair under the mistletoe, Alfred finally got the understanding that they really, _really_ had needed to talk more rather than talk behind each others backs about everything. And probably shouldn't ever really come clean about how that wasn't really a gag gift.

But in the moment their lips met, Alfred was kind of 99% certain that he was glad to be lucky enough to have actually brought that tea, and also 100% certain he stopped making assumptions so quickly about people.


End file.
